Evolution
by penspot
Summary: Blue was forced to give up her paladin and now must come to terms with how she handled his transfer. This is in response to a lot of frustration in parts of the fandom about Blue "shutting out" Lance.


**A/N: Since s3 of Voltron, I have been seeing some reactions to Blue pretty much shutting Lance out. It never really bothered me when I watched it, but it seems to be a bothersome topic for some others. So... I thought about reasons why Blue would have kept Lance away and came up with this:**

* * *

"You still will not tell him?"

Blue could hear Red's confusion through their link. Confusion was new, or at least that was the last emotional response she would have expected from Red, of all lions.

"No," she answered back.

At first her answer was accepted and the psychic link dropped, but something changed and Red's voice was active again.

"He truly is worried."

"So I have witnessed."

"He believes he is invaluable. He believes that you abandoned him."

Blue feels something in her akin to the fighting spirit all of the lions exhibit in every fight. Steadfastness? Ferocity? No… anger! She had only ever felt anger from the small beings around her before now. Never…

"I did no such thing!"

Red was silent for a moment, no doubt reeling from the new reaction Blue displayed. Ages ago, the lions' creator, King Alfor, had made an observation that the lions of Voltron were continuously evolving. She had never acted like this before her slumber. In all honesty, she had never valued herself with a gender before now. That was given to her by her paladin and had remained with her ever since. Following the ten-thousand-year slumber, Blue had made her own observations as well. Each lion had showed drastic changes in what the perceived as reactions. Humans and Alteans would more categorize them as emotions. Blue and Green had only just conversed on such a topic a few vargas ago. Could the lions possibly be evolving emotions? Green had her own hypotheses, which Blue listened to with curiosity- there was another one. What was happening?

"Blue?"

"Why do I feel this way?"

"Feel?"

"Yes! Feel! Like the synapse responses that radiate from our paladins. Their 'emotions' are the only precedence I have to what is happening in my core."

"What do you feel?"

"I feel… hurt… angry… confused… sad. I-I could not let him back in. The moment he supported your former paladin to lead… I knew you had chosen him. I could not…"

"I did not realize my choice would have caused you so much flux."

"Lance would have continued to be with me. He would never let me go so easily. Despite his insecurities and eagerness to please, my cub has a good heart and is loyal. It would have broken him to not be able to pilot me."

There was no response from Red, so Blue continued. She could feel the other lions listening as well. "What I did was swift. There was no time for long goodbyes; not when he was needed in battle. He accepted his duty and I chose the righteous heart of Alfor's cub."

"What you did was… understandable," said Black.

"Was it? Can we truly understand what is happening now?" Blue shot back. "Keeping him away... forcing him to Red... I think I may have broken a little instead of him. Why were you and Red able to let those who would not pilot you sit in your paladin's seat? Black, you have lost two cubs! How are you able to stay so stoic?"

"Stoic?" Black asked.

"Another reaction," Yellow explained. "It is part of what I value in my cubs. Steadfast and mighty in heart."

"Ah."

"Why was it so hard to let my paladin go?" Blue asked. "Duty must be fulfilled. It should only be natural of me to let him pilot Red."

"In truth, we have never had to let any of our paladins go to another lion before this," said Green. "In all of our quintents before the long sleep, we never had a paladin switch between us. We all walk experimental ground."

Her words were true, but they did little to settle Blue's core.

"There are many new things we are learning," said Red. "Never since our creation could I hear my paladin from such a far distance. Though in my defense, his emotional responses are quite… loud."

"We are evolving," continued Black. "Changing. Your way of giving up your cub may have seemed harsh to him, but if I have learned anything from these humans, it is their uncanny ability to forgive."

"Forgive. Do you think Lance will ever forgive what I had done?" asked Blue.

"He already has," said Red. "Though I still believe you should tell him why."

"Perhaps…" she mused. The hangar flashed with red and the castle alarms blared like trumpets.

 _PALADINS! HEAD TO YOUR LIONS!_

"… but now is not the time."


End file.
